Nfl

One of the colts entered in Saturday's 138th running of the Preakness Stakes can lay claim to a distinction not shared by seven others:  He's actually finished ahead of the expected favorite Orb in a race. Titletown Five, one of three Preakness entries trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, and Orb were both entered in a seven-furlong, maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds at Saratoga last Aug. 18. Maiden special weights are for horses that have never won a race in their career.

At 1,992 pounds, the projected front seven of the Baltimore defense will weigh just under a ton, which is about the same as a tiny smart car, a large walrus or the Johnny Unitas statue outside M&T Bank Stadium. It could also be the heaviest front seven in the NFL next season. The folks over at Blogging the Beast recently took the projected depth charts from Ourlads, a reliable source, and totaled the weights of all the front sevens . I'm not sure why they did this, but it is interesting nonetheless.

 

The NFL Network has started to slowly reveal its list of the top 100 players of the 2012 season. But knowing how little thought some players give while filling out their ballots, I have a hard time taking that list seriously. The list that interested me more was the top 101 players of 2012 from the guys over at Pro Football Focus . Six PFF analysts put together the list, and they say they based it not on the reputation of players but solely on how they played in the 2012. They also tried to treat each position equally so the top 20 guys aren't quarterbacks.

Live Ravens draft chat with Matt Vensel and Chris Korman

Given the recent crackdown on contract hits, as noted in "Sins of the Saints" (March 22) and other player run-ins with the law, perhaps the acronym NFL refers to the National Felons League. Dennis R. McCartney, Baltimore

The Ravens waited until the seventh round to draft Elon wide receiver Aaron Mellette on Saturday evening. But the wait felt much, much longer to Mellette, who some analysts believed would come off the board earlier in the draft's final day. Soon after the Ravens called his name, though, Mellette was already thinking about what he will need to do to make the jump from the small-school Phoenix to the Super Bowl champion Ravens. “I've just got to come in and learn the playbook and figure out new ways to get open because what we did in college is more than likely not going to work in the NFL,” Mellette said Saturday evening on a conference call.

Ryan and Kubiak Dan Pompei Chicago Tribune It is difficult to argue with the choices of the players who were polled by The Sporting News. Gary Kubiak (underrated) has not won big in the postseason, but he runs a solid program, develops players and finds a way to consistently contend. Since the start of the 2011 season, he has guided the Texans to a 17-7 record despite seeing his team battle through some potentially devastating injuries.He really has put Houston on the NFL map again, with the four best seasons in franchise history.

NFC is closing the gap Ethan Skolnick Sun Sentinel You can't argue with the numbers. The AFC is 7-2 in the last nine Super Bowls, and was 37-27 in interconference play this season. Still, there are signs of a shift. Look at the playoff teams, and specifically, the third through sixth seeds. The Cowboys, Cardinals, Packers and Eagles? Or the Patriots, Bengals, Jets and Ravens? I'd take the NFC quartet. The disparity in the interconference numbers was largely due to one division per conference: the AFC South went 12-4 and the NFC West went 4-12.

Kevin Cowherd : Vikings Edward Lee : Vikings Mike Preston : Vikings Peter Schmuck : Vikings Matt Vensel: Vikings Aaron Wilson: Vikings Jeff Zrebiec : Vikings

Ever since their season ended, former Towson quarterback Grant Enders and wide receiver Gerrard Sheppard have been honing their timing with a regular series of throwing sessions. Now, the undrafted free agent rookies are eager to put that rapport to work at the Ravens' three-day rookie minicamp that starts today at team headquarters. Sheppard agreed to terms on a three-year contract, while Enders is attending the minicamp on a tryout. Both had hoped to hear from the Super Bowl champions ever since taking part in the Ravens' local prospects day in March.

The Ravens waited until the seventh round to draft Elon wide receiver Aaron Mellette on Saturday evening. But the wait felt much, much longer to Mellette, who some analysts believed would come off the board earlier in the draft's final day. Soon after the Ravens called his name, though, Mellette was already thinking about what he will need to do to make the jump from the small-school Phoenix to the Super Bowl champion Ravens. “I've just got to come in and learn the playbook and figure out new ways to get open because what we did in college is more than likely not going to work in the NFL,” Mellette said Saturday evening on a conference call.

The 2013 NFL draft is over, and looking back at what the Ravens have accomplished this weekend, it is fairly obvious that they wanted to focus on defense after slowly rebuilding the offense over the past few offseasons. As I wrote in this space earlier this weekend, I like the selection of Florida strong safety Matt Elam and Kansas State inside linebacker Arthur Brown . Both are capable of starting as rookies. I still don't know much about big Southern Missouri State nose tackle Brandon Williams , but he figures to have a meaningful role this year, too. On Saturday, the third and final day of the draft, the Ravens used three of their seven draft picks on defense, making it six of 10 picks overall, including their first four.

FRIDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS NASCAR Sprint Cup Hansen 400, qualifying SPEED5:30 Nationwide Richmond MASN27:30 MLB Orioles@Oakland (T) MASN9 a.m. Cincinnati@Washington MASN7 Atlanta at Detroit MLB7 Cubs@Miami WGN-A7 Orioles@Oakland MASN210 C. base. Purdue@Michigan State BIGTEN3 Minnesota@Iowa BIGTEN7 NBA play. New York@Boston, Gm. 3 ESPN8 San Antonio@Lakers, Gm. 3 ESPN10:30 Denver@Golden State, Gm. 3 ESPN210:30 PGA Champions Liberty Mutual, 1st rd. GOLF12:30 Zurich of New Orleans, 2nd rd. GOLF3 LPGA North Texas Shootout, 2nd rd. (T)

Nationally, the TV audience for the first night of the NFL draft was down a bit from last year, but Baltimore tuned in in a big way. ESPN's round one coverage earned a 4.6 overnight rating Thursday, according to preliminary Nielsen figures supplied by the channel. That's the third highest-rated overnight since round one began airing on Thursday in 2010. That year's telecast earned a 5.4 rating, while last year's Thursday night coverage scored a 4.8. Locally, Baltimore finished fourth among metered markets behind Buffalo, New Orleans and Kansas City.

I know that I probably will, or at least should, burn in hell for thinking, much less saying it, but isn't the NFL's "pink" campaign to raise awareness of breast cancer becoming a bit tiresome? The sentiment is admirable, but haven't they gone a little over the top? The money spent on pink caps, shoes, chinstraps, do-rags, etc. would be of much more benefit if donated directly to the cause. Dave Reich, Perry Hall

No place for harassment Sam Farmer Los Angeles Times Is the NFL overstepping its bounds by looking into the accusations against Brett Favre? Of course not. It's something that allegedly happened in the workplace, when both Favre and Jenn Sterger were employed by the Jets. It's just as if it happened between two cubicles in an office. Commissioner Roger Goodell has shown he's serious about enforcing the personal-conduct policy, regardless of who the player or league employee is, so it will be interesting to watch how this unfolds.

Long before Isaiah 54:17 became a rallying cry during the Ravens' Super Bowl run and a fixture in Ray Lewis' speeches, an angry and withdrawn young boy heard the words and decided to put them over his bedroom door. "No weapon formed against me shall prosper. " Yet to celebrate his 10th birthday and already burdened by a lifetime's worth of tragedy, Matt Elam felt that the whole world was against him when he displayed the verse to give him a daily reminder of what mattered.